The present invention relates to parts handling apparatus and the like, and in particular to an apparatus that accurately counts piece parts by their cumulative weight.
Small parts, such as nails, screws, rivets and the like are commonly fabricated at very high rates of speed, and are collected and sold in predetermined lot sizes, each lot having a set number of parts. Heretofore, the handling and lot control for such parts has typically been achieved by parts counters which keep track of the number of parts being manufactured by the fabrication machine either by time or actual part count. While such systems do provide lot control, they can have certain drawbacks. For example, if the fabricating machine breaks down, and must be restarted, prior lot control systems can loose accurate count. Also, if certain parts are defective, and are removed from the stream of parts, an accurate lot count cannot be established.
A final step in the packaging process typically includes weighing the package for purposes of determining shipping cost and/or pricing the sale. Since prior parts handling devices normally use an actual parts count for lot control, weighing the final package is an additional step in the shipping process. Therefore, there was a need for an automatic lot control and part handler that is adaptable for use with numerous types of fabricating machines to determine the lot size automatically at the time of manufacture, based on either the weight of the lot or by time-interval, and having capability for unattended operation.